Successful Aging: psychosocial tags of cognitive evolution in older adults 80 years old

Abstract

Introduction: in old age, the sector of population which is growing faster in western countries is those with more than 80 years old. The study of this population suppose a challenge for gerontological investigation bearing in mind the important inter-individual differences that are observed in the elderly population in general. Objective: the aim of this investigation is to make a longitudinal follow-up of three years of an initial sample of old people older than 80-years-old in order to analyze which psychosocial variables are associated with the different paths of aging, that is, successful, normal and pathological aging. Method: A total of 132 oldest-old people have taken part in the investigation with an initial mean age of 85.76 years that where initially assessed with a wide psychological battery which included a cognitive screening test, a verbal fluency task, a verbal memory and a working memory task, an attention test, a dependency assessment scale, a Quality of Life questionnaire, and a depression scale. A follow up of 88 participants has been carried out two years later and a follow up of 69 participants has been carried out three years later in order to analyze the cognitive functioning of the sample. Results: the results show significant differences between the paths of aging in variables which assess cognitive functioning (p< 0.001), cognitive plasticity (p< 0.001) and level of dependence (p< 0.001) in the sense that those elderly people that show in the follow up a successful aging where the ones than in the beginning had a better level o cognitive and physical status. Conclusions